


Stolen Time: Loki x Reader

by xvibi



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I have no idea at what point in the timeline this would take place, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Loki x Reader - Freeform, M/M, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, kinda has dark academia vibes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:55:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26245279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xvibi/pseuds/xvibi
Summary: A young widow who is hunting down the alien that killed her husband is adopted into the Avengers while they decide to team up and hunt the alien together. In her time living at the Avengers Tower, a certain frost giant who is notoriously known for his rather distant emotions takes a particular liking to her.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Jane Foster/Thor, Loki (Marvel)/Reader, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Prologue

It was everything you had ever dreamed of. You were fresh out of high school and about to start your life with your wonderful husband, the absolute love of your life. Losing your family halfway through high school was never something you had imagined would be in the cards for you, and although you miss them everyday, you’re grateful for the new life it gave you. You had a new family. You married your high school sweetheart the day after your graduation when you were 17, you packed up your things and moved across the country.

In the next month you would be starting your first semester at the university of your dreams, and you had a decent paying job at a local bookstore. The owner was an old woman, a widow with no children, who was becoming more and more ill as the days passed by. When she first hired you, she told you that she hadn’t had an employee who stayed at the bookstore for more than a couple months, and you promised her you were there to stay, at least until you finished college, which wouldn’t be for another few years. You were quite smart, smarter than most, and you were able to get enough college hours to take you all the way through your first two years of college before you even graduated high school, so your degree would only take you about two years to completely finish.

By the time you were 19, you had your first degree in business administrations and you had been promoted to manager of the book store.

When you were 21, you had your second degree; this time, you majored in psychology and minored in history. The bookstore owner, for whom you still worked for, was now in hospice. She appointed you the sole beneficiary in her will. She never told you.

Then when you were 23, you finished your third degree. You double majored in literature and religious studies. You were also now the owner and manager of the bookstore, and decided it was time to take a break from school and focus on your newly inherited business

Life was perfect, at least it was, until you were 24. An alien ship crash landed on Earth, specifically, your city. The government assessed the scene and later that day made a public statement saying that there were no known survivors on the ship, and all the humans of Earth were safe from the supposed invaders. You and your husband watched the president's speech on television that evening, thanking whatever powerful being out there that everyone was safe. You enjoyed the rest of the evening with your husband before deciding to go to sleep around midnight. It was a restful night, just as any other, until a few hours later.

You woke up to a crash coming from what seemed to be the living room. You turned on your opposite side to see if your husband had awoken from the loud sound as well, but his side of the bed was empty. You grabbed the switchblade you kept in your bedside table and slowly crept your way out of the bedroom and into the hallway. You carefully peered your head into the kitchen. You saw your husband lay unconscious across the counter top and an alien that looked like the ones that crashed on Earth earlier that day was attempting to crawl out the window above the kitchen sink, knocking over dishes as it did so. You threw your knife at the unearthly being and the blade lodged itself between where a human's shoulder disks would be, although you weren’t quite sure what this particular species' anatomy was like. It winced in pain and was definitely wounded, but only enough to slow it down. It turned around and stared at you, and you froze in fear. To your surprise, it’s eyes looked almost human, and if it had been any darker, you probably would’ve assumed it was. It stared at you for a moment before sirens began wailing down the street. It seemed startled by them, and it went back to its original task and climbed out the window. 

You stood frozen in time for a moment, afraid it might change its mind and turn around to come back after you but it never did. You slowly reached for the light switch before running over to your husband's side. 

You screamed in terror at the now visible sight. 

He was most certainly not unconscious, his throat was sliced open and his blood was spilled across the counter and it now slowly dripped to the floor below. The once loving eyes now stared blankly at the ceiling above although it was most likely the alien's face he last saw before taking his final breath. His right hand was covering his exposed throat and the other clutched onto the chain he wore around his neck that held his wedding ring. 

The police insisted it was a government affair. They informed you that one of the aliens had escaped the crash, but it hadn’t been perceived as a threat. They didn’t want to alarm the public so they failed to mention it during the press conference. They assured you they would find the alien with help from the avengers and justice would be served in honor of your now late husband. You wanted to believe them, but the American system wasn’t made to help people like him. They never allowed you to publicly speak on it, and they never informed the masses. The obituary simply said he died during a violent robbery, and the government forced you into changing your identity since the rogue alien knew both where you lived, and what you looked like.

You knew the government would probably file away the case and let it collect dust in a storage closet somewhere, and although you had seen the great things the avengers had done, you decided not to bet on them. If justice truly was going to be served, you would have to take matters into your own hands. You sold the bookstore to an old friend, changed your name, and went on the run. You spent your days tracking the alien and even battling with it a few times. It usually ran off after a few moments of sparring, and you always followed it. You lived off of scraps and cherished memories of the life you left behind. You lived your life like this for about a year. You had caught up to the creature once again, and battled it as usual, but in the middle of the fight, just when you were sure this would be the time you would take him down once and for all, there was a sudden shift. He gave up fighting completely and stared up at the sky with a blank expression on his face. Confused as to what was going on above you, you turned around. A fleet of heroes soared through the sky in your direction. Leading them, a human-like figure in a suit of red and gold metal. 

Iron Man.


	2. One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay just so there's no confusion, Y/A means "Your Alias" and Y/N will be "Your Name".  
> Okay hope you guys like this one

There were quite a few of them soaring through the sky, and you could only assume there were quite a few more in the small aircraft that followed. From what you could see, Iron Man, Thor, Vision, and Falcon were all flying alongside the jet. The creature was now running away and off into the distance. You had been staring at the sky for so long you hadn’t noticed that he slipped away. You tried chasing after him, but it was no use, he was too far gone, and you would just have to try again later. 

The odd looking group slowed down and began their descent to the ground, landing where you and the alien sparred just moments ago. You stood still, but held your ground, trying your best not to look nervous.

“Who are you?” asked the eccentric billionaire who had unmasked himself and now slowly approached you.

“Just someone looking to serve some justice,” you replied with the most assured voice you could conjure in that moment.

“Yeah okay, that’s great, but what’s your name and why are you after our alien,”

“Y/A. I’ve been tracking down that alien for the past year, and I had it until you decided to make a scene.”

“No offense, but why would an average Midgardian be hunting down an alien on the government's wanted list,” added in the tall Asgardian standing beside Stark.

“It doesn’t matter,” you said in a slightly panicked tone. “What matters is that it’s captured and taken into custody, or killed,” you finished more calmly.

It was then that a faint voice sounded from a small speaker that each of them seemed to have embedded into their suites.

“What’s the deal guys, you need backup?” a woman asked.

“Open the hatch, no alien, but it seems we might have an ally,” Iron Man, who seemed to be the leader of the group, responded.

“You're coming with us,” he now said to you.

You figured it was better not to protest and simply comply with his order, and despite the fact that most of them could overpower you at any given moment, you figured the chances of you being in any harm with them were slim to none. You trailed behind the others and walked towards the aircraft.

Inside, there were even more people than you expected there to be. First you saw a tall, blonde man standing in front of everyone else. Had you not read about how he served in WWII for one of your history classes in college, you would have assumed he couldn’t have been much older than you. Behind him, an assortment of people, a woman, short with red hair, the famous world assassin, Black Widow, a short, nerdy looking man, who you knew as world famous scientist Dr. Bruce Banner, but the rest of the world most often only referred to him as Hulk. Next to him, stood another man with a piece of metal where his arm should be, the Winter Soldier, who you also recognized from your days of studying  
US history. Then there was another woman whose hair wasn’t too different from the shade of red as the assassins, only she was slightly taller and wore red clothing that matched her hair, Scarlet Witch. Even further behind them stood two other men, one was of average height, and had a bow strapped to his back, the man the world only ever knew as Hawkeye. The other, a tall and undoubtedly attractive man, although it was hard to tell just exactly what his body type was with all the layers of leather and armor he always wore. He had raven black hair that hung down to his shoulders, and he seemed to hold himself with pride, even more so than the rest of the group did, which was odd seeing as he was the foreigner who attacked and destroyed one of your planet's most beloved cities. The infamous Prince Loki of Asgard.

* * *

The ride was rather quiet, and far shorter than you expected. For such a small craft, it had some massive power and flew quickly. After a few brief introductions, Mr. Stark instructed you to sit tight until you arrived back at their base, and there, you would be able to have a more private conversation with a few select members of the group. You did as you were told and stayed in your seat, making only minimal small talk with the master assassin, Black Widow, whose name you now know is Natasha, and the rather powerful witch whose name, you learned, is Wanda. 

When you arrived at the Avengers headquarters, you were led into a lab and you were left alone with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, while the rest of the team waited outside in the common area. The lab was rather clean besides a few work stations where it was obvious that the scientists of the group had been working on their respective projects. It was very obviously the workings of Stark and Banner, who’s work you’ve not only been keeping tabs on, but admiring, ever since you were a little girl. 

“Who do you work for?” started the former soldier, turned lab rat, in a voice of assured authority.

“Bold of you to assume I take orders from anyone but myself, but I’ll forgive you given your history of coming across traitors, Captain,” you quick-wittedly replied.

“Okay, look, we just want to know who you are, what your deal with the alien is, and whether we can trust you or not,” he replied in a more relaxed and apologetic manner.

You thought for a moment. You observed them carefully, you calculated their every move. The Captain held himself with assurance, but it was obvious it was only in hopes of intimidating you into submission. Deep down, however, you could tell he was just concerned for the well being of his friends, and whether you would be a danger to them or not. His eyes didn’t always meet yours, they stared into the distance behind you and looked out the window into the common area where all of his friends sat. As for Mr. Stark, he was more relaxed,and he seemed not afraid at all. He leaned back against a desk directly across from you with his hand above what seemed to be a discrete button that was at surface level with the table, one that anyone who wasn’t trained to pay attention to the most minute details wouldn’t have noticed. Underneath it, a chamber built directly into the desk, even more well hidden than it’s trigger. Within it, you assumed, held a weapon that not even the other man in the room was aware of, that would probably blow you all the way into the neighboring state. The knowledge that he was armed was enough to allow him to keep his cool without you knowing just how hesitant of you he was. Despite his fear, his eyes danced with curiosity, he yearned to know what was going on within your mind as you sat there glancing about the room. It was with these findings you decided it wouldn't hurt to give up your facade and tell them the truth. The whole truth.

“My name, my real one that is, is Y/N. About a year ago, an alien spacecraft crash landed in my city and a surviving alien fled the scene before SHIELD could arrive and examine the site. That night, the alien broke into my apartment and murdered my husband in the middle of our kitchen. I was able to wound it but it managed to escape my home and flee off into the city. Seeing as the alien knew what I looked like and where I resided, they made me adopt a false identity and leave my life behind. They assured me the Avengers would be investigating and hunting the alien but I didn’t really believe them, and I guess I was right to since it’s been almost a year and today was the first time I saw any sign of you. I left my life behind, changed my name, and went on the run hunting down the creature. I spar with it every now and again but the coward just runs off mid fight. It seemed off its game today and I was sure today would be the day I finally got it, but when it saw you coming towards us, it ran off again,”

He moved his hand off of the trigger.

“Wait, so this thing has been on SHIELD’s radar for a year, why would Fury just tell us about this now?” Rogers asked in a concerned and curious tone.

“Well that’s something you’ll have to ask Nick Fury yourself, but now that I’ve told you all I know, I should be on my way. As I’m sure you know, homicidal aliens aren’t going to catch themselves,” you said getting up from your chair and heading towards the door. 

“Wait, don’t you think you need some backup, maybe somewhere to live?” Stark said frantically, obviously not wanting you to leave. “Look, we both want the same thing, and I’m sure it’d be nice to have some fresh sets of eyes and some backup, and I know we could use someone who’s already been tracking this alien, and your more than welcome to stay here at the tower with us while we figure out how to catch this thing,” he ended.

You thought for a moment. He was right. You’d been on the case for so long, your mind was filled to the brim with observations you’d made of the creature, and you weren’t sure of how much more you could handle. It would also be nice to settle down for a moment, and Stark Industries had the technology to track the creature remotely without actually having to follow it around everywhere. 

“Deal, but my true identity and how I came across the alien stays between the three of us,” you finally agreed. 

“Deal,” the two men said in harmony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, hi everyone. The prologue did so much better than I expected it to, and it hasn't even been a week yet so thank you! I hope you liked this chapter, and as I said before, I will be posing updates on my tumblr (@natsabdss) and on my twitter (@lokiiloves). I just started school this past week so I'm still trying to come up with a posting schedule but for now i'm just gonna try to post towards the beginning of each week so sometime between Sunday and Tuesday.


	3. Two

It’s been a week since Tony and the rest of the Avengers took you in as one of their own, and you created a bit of a routine for yourself while you stayed with them. You spend most of your days (and even some nights) working in the lab with Tony and Bruce in an attempt to create a device that will allow you to track the rogue alien directly from the compound. 

When you're not working on your device, you split your time in half, using one of the halves for training, usually with Nat, Bucky, or Steve, and when you're feeling up to a challenge, the mighty Thor. The other half was spent in Mr. Stark’s extravagant library. One floor of the large tower was dedicated to holding every book you could possibly imagine, and it was often the quietest place in the building which you found quite comforting. You spent most of your time wandering through the aisles of large shelves filled to the brim with knowledge. Going on the run to hunt the alien had meant that you had to abandon your rather extensive book collection, and hadn’t been able to read much in the time you had been away from your old life. 

The only other person who was ever there, was Loki. He, like yourself, often roamed the large space, and you were often in there at the same time. Never talking to one another, but acknowledging and simply enjoying the others presence. In the week that you had been there, the two of you had only exchanged simple greetings, but in all honesty, it was more attention than he usually gave the other members of the team, with the exception of his brother of course. You also just so happened to end up with the bedroom neighboring the rather timid god, and often walked back to the sleeping quarters together in silence after long, quiet nights spent in the library.

On this particular evening, you were feeling quite drained from a long day of working in the lab with Tony seeing as Bruce and Natasha were sent away on a mission. Most of the time, Bruce was able to settle Tony’s over the top nature down, but without him there, Stark was absolutely restless, a not so comforting contrast to your rather calm personality. After wrapping things up in the lab for the day, you trained with the rather eccentric Peter Parker, who you had the pleasure of meeting only a few days after you met the rest of the group. 

To help ease your mind into relaxation, you decided to go to the library and hopefully find a book to read through the night. To no surprise, Loki had already stationed himself in the middle of the astronomy section of the library, his favorite thing to read about so it seemed.  
“Hey Loki,” you said as you walked your way over to your favorite section of the library. He didn’t respond, he just continued to blankly stare at the books on the shelves.

“Are you alright?” you asked, a little concerned due to the fact that he was usually very polite and always returned the greeting. 

“Sorry, it just seems that I’ve read through all of the astronomy books in the library, and I’m finding myself a bit lost,” he finally replied, but still not looking away from the books.

“Well maybe it’s time you get acquainted with other genres of Midgardian literature,” you said in a only half-joking manner.

“I suppose so, do you happen to have any recommendations?” he asked, finally turning away from the shelves and facing you.

“Well, you should probably start with some classic literature,” you said trying to find some of your favorites in the section of the library you had become all too familiar with. 

He began walking towards a small desk near the classics section of the library as you over-excitedly began to pull out all of your favorites. You grabbed copies of the Odyssey, the Iliad, Hamlet, Frankenstein, Julius Caesar, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. When you had grabbed all of them, you walked towards him and set down the stack of books on the table in front of him. Some of them, you realized, were a bit ironic when taking into account just who exactly you were recommending them to.

“Well, I can assure you that these are some of the best books Earth has to offer,” you said as he started to look through the titles and observe the covers.

“And what may I ask, makes you so sure?” he asked slyly with a playful grin and quick glance away from the books and at you.

“Well, I studied literature in university and got a degree in it, and I owned a bookstore for a short while so I’ve read quite a fair share of books and these are still some of the most eloquently written ones I’ve come by.” You could’ve come up with a lie, but there was something you saw in him, and you couldn’t place your finger on it, that made it hard to not want to open up to him, so you decided on telling the truth, but not enough of it to be too revealing.

“Well, I guess I have some reading to do,” he said, taking the books and walking over to his usual spot in the library, a cozy bay window that overlooked the city. “Thank you, Y/A.” 

* * *

That night, you and Loki sat in silence in the library, him at the bay window beginning to read the Odyssey, and you in a chair not too far from his window, reading an astronomy book about constellations that Loki had recommended in return for the ones you gave him. Before you knew it, it was past midnight, and each of you were already at least a few hundred pages into your respective books. You both decided to take your books and go back to your rooms to get some sleep before the next day.

When you got back to your rooms and went separate ways, you begin to feel the tiredness weigh down on your body. You trudged over to the wardrobe and pulled out a faded navy blue sweatshirt that had once belonged to your husband. It was now the only item of his belonging that you kept with you after going on the run, (aside from his wedding ring which you wore on a chain around your neck, along with your own, tucked into your shirt and out of sight) and you wore it almost everyday, whether it be to sleep or on more casual, and colder days that didn’t call for proper attire. You stripped off the clothes you had worn through the day and into the sweatshirt that you liked to imagine still carried a faint scent of your husband before crawling into bed and drifting off into sleep, leaving the rather intriguing book on your bedside table for the morning. 

In the room right next door, Loki too decided to change out of his slightly formal Midgardian attire that he wore on days in which he didn’t plan on training or going on a mission, and into a pair of sweatpants. He got into bed, but found himself unable to fall into a slumber, which happened more often than not. Like yourself, he was ridden with nightmares, and they haunted him day and night, but his demons made him restless, whereas yours made you exhausted and despite your own fair share of nightmares, used sleep as a temporary escape from the demons of your awakened mind. Loki often dreamed of violence and pain and suffering; however, you often dreamed of worlds in which your husband was still alive and the two of you lived the life that you always wanted with him, and although they would occasionally turn sour, you were still grateful for the extra time your subconscious allowed you to spend with him.

Loki, finally giving up on attempting to seep, sat up and turned on his bedside lamp and decided to continue on reading the lengthy poem that had gratefully been introduced to him, and he enjoyed reading the tales of Odysseus, despite not knowing much about Ancient Greece. He read on through the night and into dawn, finally reaching the end of the book at around 8 o’clock in the morning, when the sun shone in through the windows and illuminated his room, no longer requiring him to use the light of the lamp to read. 

Anxious to share his thoughts on the book, he got out of bed, showered, changed into some casual clothes that he often reserved for weekends, walked out of his room, and knocked on your door, awakening you.

“Who is it?” you groaned, too lazy to get out of bed and open the door.

“It’s Loki. I finished the book, and I was wondering if you would talk about it with me over breakfast,” at the sound of this, you hesitantly rolled out of bed, and stumbled over to the door to open it.

“Perhaps we could go out to a café,” he excitedly exclaimed now looking at you face to face.

It was strange seeing Loki so open, and Loki felt strange acting that way, but he couldn’t help himself. No one else in the tower read much, and he always felt embarrassed to ask questions about the foreign planet, but when you so kindly offered to introduce him to your planet's literature and culture, he couldn’t help but feel excited to learn more from you.

“Okay, sure, but can you give me about half an hour to get ready?” you asked, realizing you were still in the old sweatshirt.

“Of course, shall I meet you outside the building then?” he asked, confirming the plans.

“Yes, I’ll see you then,” you said seeing him off and closing the door behind you. 

You showered, got dressed, and put on some light makeup before leaving the building and seeing Loki sitting on a nearby bench just a few feet short of the door. You weren’t quite sure where he was taking you, but he told you of a small coffee and breakfast shop only a few blocks away from Tony's tower, that he promised was good. 

Most of the walk was spent making casual small talk. Loki told you of his mother, Frigga, and how she taught him magic, and was one of the most caring people he had ever come across throughout all of the nine realms. He didn’t say much beyond that, but he asked you questions about your life as well. You told him of your family, where you grew up, all of the degrees you had accumulated, and the book store, leaving out any mentions of your late husband. Although, now learning of what a seemingly ordinary life you had, he was curious about how you found yourself to be a vigilante alien hunter, but he decided it best not to push his luck with you and pry for more details. 

The breakfast at the coffee shop, as promised by Loki, was actually quite delicious. The two of you, after getting past the small talk, shared your thoughts and analysis on the Odyssey and you explained the Trojan War and other tales of Ancient Greece to him, which then inspired him to do more research on the topic when the two of you returned to the tower. 

In the following weeks, the two of you fell into a routine. You would recommend a small collection of books to him, and he would recommend some astrology books to you, and on the weekend, the two of you would have breakfast at a café, and share thoughts on the books, and he would tell you about Asgard and all the other plants he had once visited with his father and Thor when he was young, and you told him about Earth, it;s history, and cultures. You both came to find one another's company pleasant, and although most of your conversations never involved sharing many personal accounts, the two of you grew closer and closer as the days passed by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I went a little longer than usual without posting, but I got caught up with some things but here's a new chapter, and I hope you all liked it.


	4. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// Mentions of blood, scars, and injuries

_You had been at the compound for about two days. You had mentioned to Tony that you had a degree in literature, and he told you of the library Pepper had insisted on adding to the tower but never used. He told you that you were more than welcome to take advantage of it while you were staying at the tower, so you took him up on his offer. That day, when you left the lab, you went to your room to change into some more casual clothes, then headed to the library. What Tony had failed to mention, was that a certain god of mischief enjoyed dwelling there in his spare time. When you saw him sitting at the bay window with a book open in his lap, you were a little hesitant to enter, feeling like you were intruding._

_You were young when it happened, but you still remembered the way he terrorized the city all those years ago. He seemed different now. The last time you had seen him, he looked malicious and hateful, and you knew for a fact that the rest of the world saw it too. But now, seeing him so up close, he looked softer, almost sad, and the furthest thing from what he had been all those years ago. Even after everything, he still carried himself with the same pride and grace that he had back then, but it was a different kind of confidence. He was no stranger to the fact that he had been a monster and how most of the world still only saw him as such, but he simply hoped to gain their trust and maybe one day he would be a hero to them just as his brother was._

_He noticed your presence and looked up from his book and in your direction. His face had been hard and unreadable at first, but when his mind registered that it was just the newcomer, it softened a bit, and he gave you a small smile, and you returned it._

_“_ _Hello,” he greeted with a voice of honey that matched the innocence of his smile, a contrast to the way he both sounded and looked when he had attacked the city. Feeling less anxious, you returned the greeting and smile and started walking towards one of the book shelves._

* * *

It had taken the three of you quite a bit of time, but the device was finally done. There was no way of predicting just how far the alien would go, so you decided to use Thor and Loki as test subjects and tracked them through their journey to Asgard for a short visit. Their father had wished to see them again, and Loki had promised you he would find a way to sneak into the palace library and bring back Asgardian books for you to read. Thankfully, the test had been successful, and although it wasn’t likely that the creature would suddenly decide to go off-world after being on Earth for so long, it was still better to be safe rather than sorry.

As promised, when Loki had returned from Asgard, he had with him an assortment of books, some about astrology, and others were what his people considered to be their classics. Most of them had been in a foreign language that you didn’t quite understand, but with the powers of his illusions, he was able to make them appear to be in English to allow you to read them, and on the night that the two of you spent together in one or the other's bedroom, he read them aloud to you. It had been an unspoken but mutually agreed upon rule that the library was not a place for noise and conversation, unlike bedrooms and cafés. Things between the two of you had been going rather well. A strong friendship was forming, and he was opening up to you much more than he did with the other Avengers. He had begun to grow a bit of a soft spot for you, but he never would have said it out loud. When he was around the other Avengers, he was cold and distant as usual, and although you had never been too much of a social person, you were making a few allies around the compound, but when the two of you were alone, he was soft and warm, he showed you sides of him no one else got to see. Sometimes, on restless nights, one of you would join the other in their room, and just talk to each other until tiredness fell upon one of you, and each of you fell asleep alone in your own rooms.

Most of the others didn’t really notice much of a change at first. Your café dates on Saturday mornings were often so early that no one thought anything unusual of your absences, and everyone had already realized that you were just as much of a book worm as he was, so it was no surprise that you spent time in the library. But as time passed, Loki began to get a little braver with his actions in the common areas. If someone had proposed a night spent together in the common room, or a group dinner, the two of you often gravitated towards each other and sat side by side, and when he thought no one was looking, he would give you a small smile, or playfully nudge you when you made certain remarks to the group.

You didn’t mind Loki’s companionship, it had been a long time since you felt close to someone, especially close to someone who didn’t treat you like you were broken. He knew nothing of the hardships you had faced in your time before being adopted by the group. He did not know of the dead family members, he did not know of the husband who had not even been dead for a year. He did not know about the demons that haunted you at night, that the alien who you so fiercely hunted and battled scared you beyond imaginable, that the sight of your husband bleeding out on the kitchen counter shook you to your core and you see it every time you close your eyes. And for the same reasons, he did not mind your company either. You did not know of the father who had hidden his true identity from him his entire life, and cast him aside. You did not know of the things he had endured in his time serving Thanos. You did not know of the scars he bared in his mind, body, and soul, or the mother who had loved him so dearly that died before he could apologize for the harsh words he had spoken to her only moments before, and how he could never find it in him to forgive himself for it.

You had spent the day in the lab, as usual, with Tony and Bruce. Now that the device was built, tested, and ready to be put in action, the three of you, along with the help of Tony’s AI’s, had been sifting through security camera footage, and social media accounts in an attempt to locate the alien. Like most days, you found almost nothing of the alien, and the little bit that you did, was days old and would no longer be of use. You had spent the previous day training with Bucky, and as usual, your body was a little worn out, so you opted for the library with Loki instead of going back to the gym. To your surprise, Loki wasn’t there, it was a sight you had never seen before. While you were in the lab during the day, Loki spent his time doing either one of three things: combat training in the gym, practicing his magic with Strange and Wanda, or throwing knives and daggers at simulated targets. You assumed he had gotten caught up in his training, and would show up soon, but when an hour passed with no sign from him, you started getting a little anxious in the rather empty space that you had grown to appreciate more when occupied by Loki.

You knew it was silly, but you were curious to find out what it was that had pulled him away from his strict routine. You decided to go to the gym and training rooms to see if he was there, but there was no sign of him. When the gym had failed, you had decided to see if he was in the common room, or maybe even in the kitchen, but this time, all you found were Wanda and Vision cooking, so you knew that him training with Wanda was no longer an option. Next, you tried his bedroom, knocking on the door, only to receive no answer. If he was in there, you weren’t quite sure how he would react if you barged in uninvited, but you took a chance and opened the door, only for this space to be empty as well. You started aimlessly wandering around the compound in hope of finding some sign of Loki’s presence, but there was nothing. Eventually, you ran into Steve and Tony in a hallway.

“Hi, have either of you seen Loki?” you asked, trying not to sound too desperate.

“Him and Thor have been out on a mission since noon, but they should be getting back soon, why?” Steve replied.

“Oh, no reason, he was just supposed to hand off a book to me today, and I hadn’t seen him around,” you said trying to play things off as normal before walking away. You decided on settling back in the library, while you waited for Loki to arrive again. For the past couple of days, you had been enjoying one of the Asgardian books Loki had brought back to Earth, but it was in a foreign language that you didn’t understand. Without Loki around to cast his magic and allow you to see it in English, you settled for another one of the human-written astrology books recommended by Loki that you had yet to read. He had told you that this was one of his favorites, but in the short time that you had known him, you already picked up on the fact that he said that about every book he recommended to you.

After a few short moments, you heard a noise coming from the entryway. Curious at the noise, you looked up towards the sound, only to see a beaten and bloodied Loki, still wearing his battle armour, stumbling into the library. In a panic, you arose from your seat and rushed to his side, wrapping an arm around him, allowing him to use you as a human crutch as the two of you walked over to his usual seat by the window.

“What happened to you?” you asked, still distraught at the sight of the powerful god looking so broken.

“Oh it’s nothing, just a minor conflict with someone during the mission,” he remarked with a groan, trying to hide his pain but failing.

“This does not look like a minor conflict,” you said trying not to cringe at the unfamiliar look of pain and discomfort in his face. “I shall be healed in a couple of days time, there is no need for dramatics,” he said laughingly, but the movements made him wince in pain.

“Well even if that’s true, walking around and bleeding out of uncleansed wounds for a few days probably wouldn’t do anybody any good,” you replied. You knew he wasn’t the type of person to ask for help even when he needed it, but you’d be damned if you didn’t at least try to convince him.

“I’m not going to the medbay,” he said as the light tone left his voice and face. He didn’t like people seeing him weak and broken, especially not Midgardian doctors who didn’t know the first thing about his species biology, but felt entitled to act like they did anyways. You knew this wasn’t something you should push.

“Fine, then at least let me clean and dress your wounds, I have a first aid kit in my room,” you offered, hoping more than anything that he would accept.

He sighed and rolled his eyes, but he let you pull him back up and you helped him walk back out of the library and toward your room. He sat down on your bed and took off his armour and his shirt while you went to the bathroom to get the first aid kit out of the medicine-cabinet. Although you had toughened up when you went on the run to fight the alien, you were still an average human, and you trained against some of the strongest people in the world, so playful spars with the teammates often ended in a few bruises and minor injuries, so you always made sure your first aid kit was readily available and fully stocked.

You started with a wet cloth and wiped the blood that had stained his skin on the ride back to the tower. He winced every now and then, when you pressed a tender spot, and you would mumble apologies while taking mental notes of areas to be careful with. When the dried blood was gone, you could see all the places where bruises were starting to form, some big, and some small. You followed by pouring some hydrogen peroxide onto a cotton pad and gently rubbed over the wounds trying your best not to be too harsh on him like you had before. Most of the wounds had been superficial and not as severe as they had once seemed, and he was right, they probably would heal in a couple days. You pulled out the gauze and started covering the part of his skin that had been torn open. As you did so, your fingers grazed scars that were scattered across his arms, back, and torso. Some looked new, but others looked old and faded. You knew he probably wouldn’t appreciate you staring at them or asking about them, so you continued to work in silence.

When you finished dressing the last of his wounds, your eyes looked away from his torso and into his. He had already been staring at you. He sighed a lighter sigh than the one he had made earlier in the library, and he quietly thanked you as a small and innocent smile crept onto his face. The pain in his eyes was still there, but there was also warmth and gratitude. You smiled back at him, and the two of you stayed like that for a while. Staring and smiling at one another, letting the comfortable silence engulf the two of you into a world of your own. You hadn’t quite understood how intimate the moment had been, but you knew better than to ruin the moment by talking or looking or moving away from him. Loki allowing someone, and a Midgardian nonetheless, to take care of him while he was in a vulnerable state was unheard of in his millennium long lifetime.

“After I’ve changed out of these clothes, would you mind if I came back here?” he asked, breaking the silence, but still not looking away from you.

“Of course not,” you said, not breaking the smile that still lingered on your face.

He got up and went back to his room allowing both of you to change into more comfortable clothes. Something told you not to bother with your husband's sweatshirt that night, so you opted for a simple t-shirt instead. When Loki returned, he crawled under the covers of your bed as if it was something he did every night, and you joined him. You sat up with your back against the headboard, and he soon sunk down and rested his head on your side. You could see the tiredness the day had brought him settling onto his face.

“Will you read to me?” he asked sleepily. You picked up one of the books that you had left resting on your bedside table and read to him as he had asked you to. You mindlessly read aloud to him for about 10 minutes before his breaths evened, and you heard quiet snores escaping his lips. You set the book back down and sunk down into the bed like he had moments before and as soon as you settled, he reached out and snaked his arms around your waist. It had been the first time since the night your husband died that you shared a bed with someone, and although it felt strange, you didn’t have the strength to disrupt Loki’s peaceful slumber and make him walk back to his room. And although you didn’t know it, this was the first time in hundreds of years that Loki had fallen asleep with such ease, and slept all the way through till morning without being shaken awoke by the nightmares that so often haunted him.

Something shifted between the two of you that night, and neither of you knew exactly what it was, or how to feel about it, but you both knew that you didn’t mind it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, this is my first time writing in about 2 years and the first time publishing on AO3. I hope you like it, and if you want to follow me on my other social medias for updates on the story and what not, my tumblr is @natsabdss and my twitter is @lokiiloves so I hope you enjoy!


End file.
